In this thesis work a policy improvement algorithm called Policy Improvement with Path Integrals (PI2) is used to generate goal-directed locomotion of a complex snake-like robot with screw-drive units. PI2 is numerically simple and has an ability to deal with high dimensional systems. Here, PI2 is used to find proper locomotion control parameters, like joint angles and screw-drive unit velociti...

Snake-like robots conventionally use undulation movements for locomotion [1], [2]. In contrast, a nonstandard snake-like robot having four screw-drive units which are connected serially by three active joints [3] uses propulsion by rotating its screw-drive units to move. Employing this screw-drive mechanism, undulation is not required for its locomotion. This helps it to move in narrow spaces. ...

Telepresence robots allow people to explore remote environments, interacting to other people between long distance. A person only needs to know how to drive them in order to feel his/herself inside a remote environment. The main goal of this project is to provide a user interface that improves the user’s depth perception through a 2D visual feedback and, as a secondary target, to allow non-expe...

In this paper we have presented a study on vision based autonomous driving of a four-wheel-drive platform for agricultural applications. The developed driving platform can be autonomously driven on any path pattern. The key contributions to this paper are development of unique navigation pattern to train the mobile robot to follow any kind of path pattern. We have demonstrated how speed, camera...

A motion control and the corresponded strategy to realize cyclic ball passing motion in robot soccer games are presented in this paper. By this strategy, multiple mobile robots kick the ball in tum with high speed while they adjust or change their formation. The ball-kick controller is to drive the robot to an adequate position with a prescribed velocity in a fixed finite time. After kicking, t...

We present the evolution of a highly-efficient system for visually detecting number signs in real-time on a mobile robot with limited computational power. The system was designed for use on a robot participating in the 2010 “SICK robot day” robotics challenge, in which the robot needed to autonomously find 10 number signs and drive to all of them in a given order as fast as possible. Our most e...

This paper designed and developed a teaching robot three degrees of freedom manipulator based on Fischer creative combination model platform. Firstly, the overall structure of the robot was analyzed to determine the drive programs, and then the manipulator structure was assembled and established in accordance with the modular design approach. Finally, the robot control system was studied. This ...

The main goal of the RAC project is to develop a robotic soccer team for the RoboCup small-size league competitions. This paper is focused on two main issues: omnidirectional drive control design and modelling, and robot design and construction. The robot hardware implementation and design options are presented. Based on the robot kinematic model, a motion controller is designed using trajector...

Vision and sensor systems and an efficient motion system are fundamental components in the process of designing and building autonomous robots. This paper describes the technologies behind a “chess robot”, built to collect pawns, queens and kings and to separate them into on specified squares. The robot, designed to participate to the International competition of robotics “Eurobot 2011”, is abl...

This report focuses on two different aspects of modular robots, the enumeration of distinct configurations of a modular robot and the generation of gaits for hybrid robots with wheels and legs. Given a particular set of modules from which the robot can be formed, a modular robot made up of these modules can attain a number of different configurations based on the relative attachment of the modu...